| Siege of Baghdad | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theOttoman–Safavid War (1623–1639) | |||||||||
 Conquest of Baghdad by the Ottoman in 1638, byCaspar Luyken. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Safavid Empire |  Ottoman Empire Yazidis[1][2] | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Bektash Khan Gorji Saru Khan † | Sultan Murad IVGrand Vizier Tayyar Mehmed Pasha †Grand Vizier Kemankeş Kara Mustafa PashaEzidi Mirza[3] | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 40,000 infantry 211 fortified city towers[4] 100 cannons | 108,589 (35,000 infantry and 73,589 cavalry) | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Heavy | Heavy | ||||||||
| Most of the city residents were massacred by the Ottomans after the capture[4] | |||||||||
 | |||||||||
Thesiege of Baghdad (Persian:محاصره بغداد) in the winter of 1638 marked the re-establishment ofOttoman control over Iraq, following a prior period ofSafavid rule. It was part of theOttoman–Safavid War of 1623–1639.
Baghdad, once the capital ofArabAbbasid Caliphate, was one of the most important cities of the medievalMuslim World. In the second half of theMedieval age, theTurkic dynasties (Seljuks,Kara Koyunlu,Ak Koyunlu) and others tried to gain control over this prestigious city.
From 1508 till 1534 it was ruled by the emergingSafavid dynasty of Iran, between that time led by shahIsmail I and shahTahmasp I respectively. In 1534, the Ottoman sultanSüleyman I (Turkish:Kanuni Sultan Süleyman) captured the city without any serious combat during theWar of 1532-1555, which was confirmed in the resultingPeace of Amasya. However, 90 years later it was recaptured byAbbas I of Persia.
Attempts of several Ottoman commanders (Turkish:serdar) to retake the city following 1624, were fruitless. In 1638 Ottoman SultanMurad IV (great-great-great-grandson ofSüleyman I) decided to recapture the city. According to legend, only the sultan in-person, could conquer the city. Murat was seen as a warrior hero and thus it seemed as his duty to personally lead this campaign and regainBaghdad. He had been victorious against theDruze rebels a decade earlier and won an important victory at thesiege of Yerevan in 1635.
According to the eyewitness account of Zarain Agha the Ottoman mobilization for the siege of Baghdad was 108,589 men composed of 35,000 infantry, in part Janissaries, and 73,589 cavalry.[6]
The siege began on 15 November 1638. The Safavids had increased the garrison size of the city by around 4-5 times. There were four main gates of the city, the North Gate,Azamiye orImam-i Azam, (ofAbū Ḥanīfa), the South GateKaranlık (dark),Ak (white) andKöprü (bridge) gates. The Ottoman observer Ziyaeddin Ibrahim Nuri described the city's fortifications as follows: the city walls were 25 meters tall and between 10 and 7 meters wide, reinforced by earthen ramparts to withstand artillery bombardment and protected by a wide and deepmoat.[4] The city walls featured 114 towers between the North and South Gate, and another 94 towers that ran parallel to theTigris.[4] TheSafavid commander,Bektash Khan, had made extensive repairs to the fortifications. Two Pashas were deployed against the first two gates. But the Grand VizierTayyar Mehmet Pasha noticed that these two gates were very well fortified. So he chose to attack on the third (Ak) gate which seemed less fortified. During the siege the Safavids made sallies of around 6,000 men at a time, this was followed by a retreat into the city and a fresh 6,000 to attack. These types of attacks greatly increased the casualties of the Ottomans. The siege continued for 40 days. Towards the end, impatient Murad urged the Grand Vizier for a general attack. The attack was successful and the city was captured on 25 December 1638 (on the 116th anniversary of thecapture of Rhodes bySuleyman I). But during the final clashes, the Grand Vizier was shot down.[7]
TheYazidi units gained the upper advantage and killed the Safavid commander. After this,Ezidi Mirza and his troops advanced further, attacking the demoralized Safavid troops and killing their commanderSaru Khan in his own tent.[8]
Although the defenders were given free passage toPersia, some resumed fighting after the capture of the city around Karanlık gate. The human loss during the after-capture fighting was severe, with the Ottomans characteristically raping and massacring the population, and sacking the city.[9] Nevertheless, soon after the capture, the new Grand VizierKemankeş Mustafa Pasha and the Persian representative Saruhan began peace talks and on 17 May 1639 thetreaty of Zuhab was signed, which became an important historical treaty. By this treaty the modern Turkey-Iran and Iraq-Iran frontier lines were drawn. Although there were some other wars after the treaty of Zuhab, the treaties following the wars were merely the ratification of the treaty of Zuhab.[10]
During the Baghdad campaign Murad lost two of hisGrand Viziers. The first wasBayram Pasha on 17 August 1638, who died on the way to Baghdad and the second was Tayyar Mehmed Pasha who died on 24 December 1638. Tayyar Mehmed was also the third Ottoman Grand Vizier who died on the battle field (the first two beingHadim Ali Pasha in 1511 andHadim Sinan Pasha in 1517)[citation needed].
After this victory Murad had two magnificentkiosks built in theTopkapi gardens, one for his victory at Yerevan and the other for his victory at Baghdad[citation needed].
